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Kari-Astrid Hauge
interviewed by Emma Taylor on December 19, 1995
"Cinnamon Schnapps, and the hottest damn pepper sauce you can find."
Kari-Astrid Hauge is a writer and bartender for cocktail.com, a cyber bar with a twist -- every drink recipe is linked to a location or a holiday. Today, she gives some tips on the best holiday and apres-ski drinks out there.
Tripod: Why do you link your drink recipes to vacation spots?KH: I think when people go on vacation, they want to relax, they want to unwind and a lot of people go out and they hit the bars, it's really incredible! They want to go out and have something different.
Tripod: How do you decide which drink belongs where?
KH: Most of the recipes we have, have been submitted by bartenders at different resorts. We kind of picked through a whole bunch ... I can't tell you how many Rum Runners, how many Margarita recipes, and how many Hot Buttered Rums we had! Probably forty percent of the recipes we have, we tasted on location. For the most part, they send them in to us, and we have our little laboratory here.
Tripod: What are the most common mistakes when people make drinks at home?
KH: People tend to either put too much alcohol in or too little. There is something called a "gip flip," which is not a full ounce, or a full shot, and it'll weaken the drink, it'll take away a lot of the flavor. And then other people are like, "Oh, yeah, this is great stuff, let's put lots in." And then the alcohol outweighs the sweetness of the drink or the other ingredients.
Tripod: Other than following a recipe exactly, what can you do to make your drinks taste like they do in the bar?
KH: Well, there are some tricks. If you like your drinks sweeter, you can mix up a kind of syrup. People like to put sugar in their drinks -- they'll have a coffee mixed drink, and they'll pour sugar into it, thinking it's coffee. It doesn't mix with the alcohol, it takes forever, and you get the little granules on the bottom. It's pretty gross. So you want to mix up some sugar with some water and boil it up, like it's a syrup. Then you can sweeten your drinks.
Or, another big thing is, people like to make frozen drinks. The problem with the melting drink is that there's not enough ice in them. People think that the ice is going to take away from the flavor, but it doesn't. It's kind of like a slurpee. With more ice, it keeps its consistency longer, especially if you're down south!
Tripod: What equipment should the aspiring bartender have at home?
KH: Ah! A wonderful thing is a shaker. The really nice ones have a an ounce shot on the top, and you pull it off, and inside there's a filter and you can pour it right out -- you know, if you want your martini shaken, not stirred. It makes a whole lot of difference if the recipe says "shake it," and you do. It makes a difference in what the drink looks like, and in the way it tastes. That's another mistake a lot of people make -- they pour the ingredients in, and they don't mix it up. You can tell when it happens, because by the time you get to the bottom of the drink, it takes like rum! The shaker is really helpful, and then of course, your handy-dandy blender.
Tripod: What's your favorite holiday drink?
KH: My favorite one is Santa's Snapper. It's just this little shot, but I had it in Alaska, after trekking through the back roads in an RV for about a week and a half, and it was so wonderful! It's a very fun drink.
Tripod: What's in it?
KH: Cinnamon Schnapps, and the hottest damn pepper sauce you can find.
Tripod: What about your favorite apres-ski drink?
KH: My favorite apres-ski drink is Gluehwein, which isn't as common here in the States as it is overseas. It's wine that has been cooked with cloves, like a mulled wine. You use a burgundy wine. I can send you the recipe. It's a very warm soothing wine, what makes it so nice is that it fortifies you for going back out! You have it with your lunch, and then you go hit the slopes.
Tripod: Yeah, Europeans are better at daytime drinking.
KH: Exactly.
Tripod: Hot chocolate and coffee make great mixers for winter drinks -- what are your favorite liqueurs for these two?
KH: The best ones for coffee -- Drambuie and Irish Cream mix pretty well together. Drambuie has almost a citrus smooth taste to it. Another one if Frangelico, which is hazelnut. You put that in with some raspberry liqueur, and that's really smooth.
Tripod: What's the key to a good eggnog?
KH: The biggest mistake is that they buy the wrong brandy, and everybody leaves blind, because it's not really brandy, it's some fortified mixture that they found! A lot of people put rum in their eggnog too, but brandy, I think, is best. What's important is a good mix. That thing in the can tastes like can. If you have that extra 15 minutes to whip up some mix, that'll make the difference.
Tripod: Do you invent a lot of drinks yourself?
KH: I do a lot of mix and match. I started very young, mixing apple juice and cranberry juice, and I would say, "This tastes good, and this tastes good, so let's see what they taste like together."
Tripod: What's the best drink you've invented?
KH: My best drink is something I call the Ski Slope. It's got two scoops of vanilla ice cream, two tablespoons of coconut, and it's whipped up with some Kahlua and some Frangelico. It's very smooth. I usually like warmer drinks, but this one's got a little texture to it. Instead of wimping out and saying, "Oh, we'll put some Malibu in here, and it'll taste nice and coconutty," you just put the real deal in. But I don't recommend it for dieters!
Tripod: One last question I have to ask -- do you have any hangover tips?
KH: The best tip for a hangover is drink more! I kid you not. Another one, is, drink lots of water while you're drinking, of course. If you can get a gallon and a half down before you go to bed, I guarantee you will not have a hangover. But those Bloody Marys make a very good breakfast treat. Or, don't sleep in, get up when you normally do. Some people try to sleep it off, and it doesn't work.
For some more great holiday drink recipes, check out http://www.cocktail.com
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